Difference between revisions of "Minnesota history"

Latest revision as of 01:10, 3 February 2022

Minnesota

Vernon Schlief records that the first assembly in Minnesota was located in St. Paul Park, south of St. Paul, and was started by his great-grandfather in the 1880s. This assembly, however, does not seem to be the antecedent of any of the current assemblies in the area. The Vernon Schliefs also started an assembly in South St. Paul, probably in the 1930s, which grew to 35 at one time. It would seem that this assembly dissolved soon after the Schliefs moved to Louisiana.

Mr. Schlief also records that he attended the Sunday School at the Cedar Avenue Gospel Hall in Minneapolis in 1924. That assembly later met at the 42nd Street Gospel Hall in Minneapolis. Harry Ironside ministered there on occasion. Thus, this assembly as well as the above may have been associated with the ‘Grant exclusives.’

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The six current assemblies in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area ““ Believers Bible Chapel, Long Lake Community Church, Maryland Bible Chapel, Northeast Gospel Chapel, Northwest Bible Chapel, and Plymouth Bible Chapel ““ jointly meet in a Bible Conference over the Labor Day weekend each year, a tradition that began in the early 1900s. These assemblies also meet quarterly for joint Missionary meetings. Bible camps in three locations in Minnesota, (Chandler, Paynesville, and Virginia), are supported in part by these and other assemblies. Co-commendation of missionaries to the Lord’s work abroad is common among these assemblies. Through the leadership of Homer Payne, Minneapolis assemblies have been helping an assembly in Bolivia, sending work teams for short terms.

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An assembly that eventually became Longfellow Gospel Chapel was meeting in various rented locations in the downtown section of Minneapolis in the early 1900s. These Christians called their various meeting places the Gospel Tabernacle during the early period. The first meetings were held in 1909 or 1910 and the first Breaking of Bread was in September 1911. Carl F. Leverentz and Henry Gilkerson were among those starting the assembly.

Nine people were in attendance at that first Remembrance Meeting. After 1911, records show the families of Walter Purcell, James Innes, Fred Beadle, O.E. Dunkerton, Carl Leverentz, August Leverentz, O.E. Magee, Carl Bergstrom, and R.D. O’Brien in the assembly.

Later leadership included Robert Wilson, Ted Bailey, William Denham, Paul Leverentz, Dan Leverentz, and William Western. Current elders are David Denham, Glen Ellis, and Philip Leverentz. Christians from Northeast Gospel Hall in Minneapolis apparently gave help in Gospel work in the early years.

From the early days, a Gospel outreach was made into South Minneapolis. When a lot in that area was given to the assembly, the believers moved their meetings into a temporary building there, in 1925 or 1926, and erected and occupied the Longfellow Gospel Hall at 3012 Longfellow Avenue S. Since then, the neighborhood has changed, but the assembly remains active at the same address in the inner city. In 1959, the assembly was incorporated as Longfellow Gospel Chapel.

Longfellow has been the prime sponsor for the Minnesota prison ministry of Emmaus Bible College in recent years. The ministry of distributing Bible courses to inmates in Minnesota prisons, is headed by David Denham. Brothers and sisters from various area assemblies correct these courses and conduct weekly classes in a prison in Moose Lake, MN. About 50 adults and youngsters attend Longfellow Gospel Chapel today.

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By 1923, several people were meeting to Remember the Lord in a rented storefront building at 1103 Johnson Street, N.E., in Minneapolis. The assembly was incorporated in October 1923 and called the Northeast Gospel Hall. The original trustees were W.A. Upton, L.W. Anderson, O.A. Anderson, J.A. Innes, W.E. Purcell, O.E. Magee, and W.R. Simpson. Some of these had been in fellowship at the Gospel Tabernacle/Longfellow Gospel Hall.

The trustees had already identified a lot at the corner of 29th Street N.E. and Ulysses Street for purchase. Construction of a basement was begun the next spring and the assembly moved into it; the upper portion was completed in 1929 or 1930. In 1966, an addition was constructed, enabling the provision of six Sunday School rooms. The assembly today is known as the Northeast Gospel Chapel.

Among the many men who have been in leadership at Northeast Gospel Chapel and its predecessors are Albert Upton, Truman Manning, J.S. McLellan, Joe Reavis, Jay Walden, Harold Crawford, Brad Biddle, John Block, Milton Haack, and James Green. With other assemblies in the area, Northeast has commended missionaries to the Congo, the Philippines, Brazil, Japan, Greece, and VietNam. About 85 adults and children are in the assembly today.

Northeast Gospel Hall and Longfellow Gospel Hall carried on cooperative efforts to spread the Gospel in the early years. This was a work for hundreds of children, held on Sunday afternoons on 45th Street between Heawatha and Snelling. The two assemblies also conducted joint open-air meetings at what is now called the ‘Seven Corners’ area.

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It was the burden of John and Ruth Clift of Northeast Gospel Chapel to begin a Sunday School work in the Golden Valley suburb on the west side of Minneapolis. In 1951, they challenged the newly married Don and Vi McLellan to assist them. The afternoon Sunday School commenced with 18 children in attendance. Teachers and helpers from other assemblies assisted in a temporary capacity and also were active in a Tuesday evening Good News Club. A ‘fun night’ was a happy activity at the Clift home.

An assembly then began, meeting at Westview School and then at Mission Farms. Those initiating the new assembly were John and Ruth Clift, Don and Vi McLellan, Robert and Marge McLellan, Bob and Mary Wilson, and Stan and Janette Tjomsland. In 1955, the Christians erected the Westview Good News Chapel. In 1970, the assembly moved to its present location in Plymouth as Plymouth Bible Chapel.

The assembly has always had a strong youth program, which included Sunday Schools, Christian Service Brigade, Pioneer Girls, Released Time Classes, and an Awana Club. Over the years, leadership of the assembly has been provided by John Clift, Bob Wilson, Arnold Petersen, Don McLellan, Scott Henderson, Jay Swisher, B.J. Tuininga, and Gary Campbell. Plymouth Bible Chapel has commended missionaries to Japan, Papua New Guinea, and elsewhere. About 150 adults and youngsters attend the assembly, making it one of the largest assemblies in Minnesota.

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In 1961, a group of families in fellowship at Northeast Gospel Chapel purchased a wooded one-acre tract on Long Lake Road at Sunnyside Terrace, in the rapidly developing residential area of New Brighton on the northern edge of Minneapolis. The Zedicher family had moved nearby a year earlier and started a children’s work in their basement, a work which was picked up by the new assembly when it began. Joe Balsan from Iowa set up a tent on the property in 1962 for a Daily Vacation Bible School, which was well attended by the neighborhood children.

A new building was erected later that year. The first meeting of the assembly at Sunnyside Bible Chapel in New Brighton was in June 1963. Fourteen families constituted the initial gathering, including the families of Lloyd and Lois Brandt, Claire and Karen Dean, Ken and Irene Manning, Grant and Helene Zedicher, Arthur and Audrey Redling, James and Mary Upton, Melvin and Coral Jacobson, and Sherman and Delores Camp. These shared in early leadership.

Recent leadership has included C. Ted Grant, Dennis Katterhenry, Kenneth Manning, Grover Sayre III, and David Wagner.

In 1987, the name was changed to Long Lake Community Church. An addition in 1989 doubled the capacity of the building, which is next to a high school; the assembly rents space in it for Sunday School overflow.

Two area assemblies have derived, all or in part, from Long Lake Community Church: Believers Bible Chapel in the Coon Rapids area of Minneapolis in 1987, and Northwest Bible Chapel in Minneapolis in 1994.

Bruce and Cheryl Ewing were full-time workers at Sunnyside from 1977 to 1984. Bill and Ginny Anderson came as full-time workers in 1989, until retiring in 1996. David Corbin and family came in 1996 to devote full time to the assembly. In 1999, Karl and Marcy Schmithe accepted a staff position to work with junior and senior high youth. With an active musical program and many young people, Long Lake Community Church has about 140 persons.

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A few brethren in fellowship at Longfellow Gospel Chapel and Northeast Gospel Chapel were burdened to start an inner-city ministry in St. Paul, which then had no assembly testimony. An assembly was formed in 1984 and met in rented space on Como Avenue as the Como Bible Chapel. Ted Gliske, Kurian Abraham, and Bruce Wahlin were among those who began the assembly. Scott Bourquin later joined in the leadership.

The work grew and a chapel at 606 E. Maryland Avenue in St. Paul was found and purchased, the present Maryland Bible Chapel. Approximately 60 persons regularly attend the assembly, whose principal burden is evangelization in that part of the city.

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Northwest Bible Chapel is the newest assembly in Minneapolis and is located in Brooklyn Park. This assembly currently meets in a school facility but plans to build. The original members of Northwest Bible Chapel came primarily from Plymouth Bible Chapel and Long Lake Community Church. Rocky DeYoung is currently a full-time worker for Northwest.

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The assembly now meeting at Hinckley Gospel Hall, north of Minneapolis, began in 1985 in the home of Roland and Amelia Ekstrand. Some of the initiators had been in fellowship in assemblies at Willmar (130 miles distant) and Minneapolis (85 miles distant). The Hinckley Assembly was not derived from those but was the result of numerous Gospel meetings and three years of home Bible studies. In 1990, the Christians purchased a building at 401Lawler Avenue South in Hinkley, their present meeting place. The brethren involved in the start-up, and who continue in leadership, are Roland Ekstrand, David Klar, and Raymond Grazin. The assembly consists of about 30 adults and youngsters.

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Evangelist A.N. O’Brien lived in Duluth for several years in the 1920s and 1930s and was considered to be one of the elders at the Duluth Gospel Hall. For many years there was no assembly testimony in the city. The Duluth Bible Fellowship was begun in 1988 by Tim Blazevic, Leo Wittenberg, and Don Peterson, and these have been the elders. About 18 are in the assembly.

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There was a small assembly at Hibbing, 40 miles northwest of Duluth, at which Vernon Schlief held Gospel meetings. A larger assembly existed at that time in Alexandria, with a large chapel, possibly the forerunner of Manor Park Bible Chapel, which disbanded in the early 1980s.

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The Meeting House in West Virginia, MN, north of Duluth, was the home of an assembly that was established in about 1941 by Neil Fraser, Walter and Lois Neff, Selma Quade, Earl Perala, and Basil Ward. The assembly has since moved into the town of Virginia and meets at the Virginia Bible Chapel. Other individuals in leadership over the years have been Raymond Andersen, Eino Peralo, Ted Johnson, Roland Rogers, Elwood Abramson, and Martin Backman. A worker has been commended by the assembly to the service of the Lord in Uruguay. About 80 adults and youngsters attend the assembly.

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The Gospel Halls of the northern U.S. have a number of small testimonies in the state. The largest of these is the Willmar Assembly, some 90 miles west of Minneapolis, meeting at East 13th Street and Trott. The Warren Ramseys, in fellowship with the Willmar assembly, started a meeting in the late 1990s that meets now at the home of David and Dorothy Van Hal in Sunburg, north of Willmar.

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In the 1980s, unable to find the kind of fellowship in which they could wholeheartedly involve themselves, Dean and Ruth Lindstrom, daughter and son-in-law to Ben and Jean Tuininga, opened their home in Rochester in the southern part of Minnesota to Bible studies. In 1987, they began Breaking Bread together in their home. By 1989, the work had grown with five other households and some singles. The home assembly is today called the Rochester Bible Chapel.

MN Bible Camps

The Minnesota assemblies sponsor three Bible Camps in the state: Story Book Bible Camp in northern Minnesota, Lost Timber Youth Camp in southwest Minnesota, and Koronis Bible Camp and Conference near Paynesville on Lake Koronis.

Sources

Questionnaire Responses Our Great Adventure in Faith, by Vernon Schlief, Beeline Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996 The History of Long Lake Church, by Grant Zedicher, 1998 Uplook, August 1989, p. 286